Some special music from Estonia

Artur Lemba: Piano Concerto no. 1; Artur Kapp: Symphony no. 4; Mihkel Lüdig:Orchestral Works

I've loved the First Piano Concerto of Artur Lemba ever since I first heard it, on a fine Finlandia disc of Estonian concertos recorded late in the last century. It was so nice to see it on this new disc, again with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, but this time conducted by the esteemed conductor Neeme Järvi. Lemba was trained at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and his music is solidly in the Russian Romantic tradition. His Concerto is from the same period as Rachmaninoff's 2nd and 3rd Piano Concertos, and it shares the lyrical feeling of those works, though one can hear as well the influence of Tchaikovsky's concerted music, not to mention Anton Rubinstein's once celebrated 4th Piano Concerto. Pianist Mihkel Poll provides all the virtuosity that Lemba puts into his music - he was as celebrated as a pianist as he was a composer - but the emphasis here is quite rightly on the music's lyrical content. Lemba really brings his own special sound to this music, as he does to the only other major piece of his I know, his Symphony in C Sharp Minor, also recorded by Järvi, and available on a special album from Chandos. Alas, that's largely it for this fine composer on disc.

Though none of the other music on this album quite matches Lemba's piece, it's all quite marvellous. Three short orchestral works by Mihkel Lüdig are lovely, though they perhaps don't stick in the memory for very long. I was quite impressed with Artur Kapp's Viimne piht (The Last Confession), in an arrangement for violin and orchestra that features the violinist Triin Ruubel. Kapp's Symphony no. 4 comes from 1948; its dedication to the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League made me think it might have a Shostakovich sound, but this is music from an earlier time. One of its subtitles is "Classical Symphony", but even Prokofiev's 1st Symphony, from 1916, has a more advanced sound. Kapp's Symphony harks all the way back, I think, to Tchaikovsky's Mozart-inspired orchestral works. The great symphonies of Edward Tubin, memorably recorded by Järvi, show a much richer and vital strain of Estonian music than this light fare, as pleasant as it might be.

As always, Neeme Järvi presents the music of his country in its best light. Authenticity is the keynote of this entire project. Chandos provides its usual full and warm sound, and excellent documentation of this unfamiliar music in a full multilingual liner booklet. Fine production values all around, from one of my favourite labels.

I love the album cover; the design is based on a photograph by Stanislav Rabunski taken in Tallin, Estonia. I managed to track down the original; what a special place!

This disc will be released on February 7, 2020